A Random Note On Activity Southwest Of Trenton, ND (Williston, ND)

Just a few miles southwest of Williston is a small town, Trenton, North Dakota. When I was growing up, there were some nice swimming "holes" in the area. The city is located near Forts Union and Buford, right at the "confluence" of the Yellowstone River and the Missouri River. I never knew what "confluence" meant when I was growing up but it sounded important; everybody was always talking about the "confluence." It's nothing more than where the Yellowstone, flowing north, flows into the Missouri River flowing east.

I suppose I shouldn't say it's nothing more than that because there is a lot of history associated with the area, and several major and minor ecological biomes. In the 1800's riverboat steamers from St Louis, MO, would have a terminus at the confluence, getting off at Fort Union. According to wiki:

The fort, possibly first known as Fort Henry or Fort Floyd, was built in 1828 or 1829 by the Upper Missouri Outfit managed by Kenneth McKenzie and capitalized by John Jacob Astor's American Fur Company. Fort Union was the most important fur trading post on the upper Missouri until 1867.

Be that as it may, the road from Williston to Trenton to points east and south was always a two-lane asphalt road, a typical rural state or county highway.

It's changing.

A few miles southwest of Trenton, seen inside the large circle in the graphic below, is the intersection of North Dakota State Highway 1804 (north/south at the intersection) and the east/west Highway 327 that would take you west into Montana and then north to Bainville (where the Amtrak recently derailed -- about a week ago -- which no one probably heard about).

Heavy equipment is now moving dirt around that intersection, and it appears going east, west, and south of the intersection, there will be a mile or two or three of four-lane highway (being widened from the two-lane highway).  The last half-mile or so on either side of the railroad track is now cement, which was new last autumn, getting completed just before winter set in. In addition to the four-lane highways leading to the intersection, the entire intersection is being re-done, and will be much, much bigger. It will be a site to behold when completed, perhaps big enough for a miniature putt-putt golf course inside the "Y" intersection if one cared to do that.

In addition, a brand new, much larger electrical utility transmission line is being built, as we "speak" today, replacing the old smaller line, paralleling the State Highway 1804 on the north side. It appears the poles were put up very, very recently. We saw pulleys on the crossbars suggesting that they were getting read to lift the wires. I don't know the fancy names for all that they are doing. Suffice it to say, a much more substantive electrical transmission line is being "strung" southwest of Trenton toward Montana.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that regional planners are getting ready for something "bigger" in the area.

The Savage CBR terminal noted in the graphic below was one of the first CBR terminals in the Bakken boom, at least that I was aware of. The circular CBR terminal was built first, again, as far I know; at least that's what I saw. Today, I also saw a straight-line CBR terminal with the loading portion enclosed. It was confirmed that there are now two CBR terminals in that location at the end of the "Savage" arrow inside the larger circle (one is a circular terminal; one is a straight segment; I assume both are operated by Savage).

The Savage CBR terminals are not drawn to scale. They are much smaller and sit closer to the intersection. If drawn to scale, they would probably be a few times bigger than the Fort Buford icon but still only a quarter or so of the size of the circle / straight line as drawn.

The question is whether all the highway activity and utility activity is going up simply for Savage. Possibly, but hard to believe. With priorities being "racked and stacked" I can think of a lot more truck-congested areas that would need widened highways (which would not explain the utility line).

Remember all that talk about the diesel refinery planned for the Trenton area? That has to be it. I'm not sure if the refinery will be located inside the larger circle in the graphic but I was told by a very unreliable source that it is located on the north side of "1804." But that would explain it.

There were very, very few wells in this immediate area. But it also doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that they wouldn't be putting in two CBR terminals, new utilities, a four-lane highway, cement highway at that, if they didn't expect a lot of local truck traffic. And, by extension, a whole of new wells. By the way, CLR's 14-well Atlanta pad is just a few miles upstream to the northeast.

So, we'll see.

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A Note to the Granddaughters

From AJ Coffee Company 

Does Dark Roasted Coffee Have More Caffeine?

During a segment of this morning’s Today Show, Joy Bauer was asked by a caller if dark roasted coffee contains more caffeine.  Before answering, Joy said that the answer would surprise a lot of people.  She then said that since some of the caffeine is lost during roasting, dark roasted coffee actually has less caffeine than milder roasts.

The truth is, as usual, just a bit more complicated.

If we were to look at two coffee beans (more properly, coffee seeds), and compare the caffeine contents in a single dark roasted seed and a single medium or light roasted seed, then Joy’s response is correct.

However, more is lost during roasting than just caffeine.

The result is that not only is there less caffeine in the dark roasted seed, but there is less mass in the dark roasted seed.  This means that it takes more dark roasted seeds to match the weight of a few medium or light roasted seeds.  The net result is that dark roasted coffee when brewed by weight (the correct method, and the method used by specialty coffee retail shops nation wide) will yield a cup containing more caffeine.

The Takeaway:

If you are  brewing coffee at home using a scoop (brew by volume), then the odds are good that there is less caffeine in your dark roast coffee, but if you brew by weight or if you go out for coffee, then dark roasted coffee will contain more caffeine.